This invention relates generally to group communications between wireless communication devices, and more particularly to point-to-multipoint group communications between wireless communication devices joined to different communication groups.
Due to the pervasiveness of cellular telephones and other wireless communication devices, manufacturers and service providers continue to explore features and/or services that distinguish their products from their competitor's products. Push-to-talk services represent one particularly popular wireless service.
Push-to-talk services provide point-to-multipoint communications that directly connect two or more wireless communication devices joined to a common communication group. At the push of a push-to-talk control or button, a user of a wireless communication device in a group may communicate with all other devices in the group. This enables near instant communication between group members.
While conventional push-to-talk services have several advantages over conventional cellular telephone communications, there are some disadvantages. For example, conventional push-to-talk services restrict communications to members of a single group. As such, members of one group cannot directly communicate with members of another group. Therefore, there remains a need for improved push-to-talk communications.